This Is Not What I Expected

Lu Jin decides to keep the hotel open after tasting Gu Sheng Nan's dish. He had been dissatisfied with all the other chefs' cooking during the hotel's evaluation, but when Gu Sheng Nan prepares a special dish for him, he genuinely enjoys it and agrees to maintain the hotel's operations, on the condition that she continues cooking for him.

Earlier, Lu Jin is shown as a meticulous executive who judges everything harshly, making his positive reaction to her dish a significant turning point.

Gu Sheng Nan mistakes Lu Jin's car for someone else's vehicle. She vandalizes it believing it belongs to a different person, which triggers the initial confrontation between them when Lu Jin exits his business meeting and discovers the damage.

Over several weeks of constantly running into Gu Sheng Nan around the hotel and city, Lu Jin becomes convinced she harbors a personal vendetta against him. Eventually, he connects the dots and realizes she must be the chef whose cooking he has been enjoying, the secret chef the hotel manager arranged to cook for him.

Their repeated encounters and Gu Sheng Nan's seemingly targeted behavior make Lu Jin suspicious of her true identity.

After Gu Sheng Nan takes time off work, Lu Jin tracks down her address and shows up at her apartment asking her to cook for him. After eating, he falls asleep on her couch, and this becomes a daily routine, visiting her place to eat and sleep on her couch becomes their new normal.

They eat puffer fish that was improperly sourced, it had been given to Gu Sheng Nan by a businessman friend trying to impress his own boss. The toxic fish causes both Lu Jin and Gu Sheng Nan to hallucinate as they roam the city at night. Lu Jin's effects wear off first on the bus, while Gu Sheng Nan remains affected longer until he carries her home.

Gu Sheng Nan visits Lu Jin's house and discovers he has a personal female chef. Lu Jin explains that his own chef was on leave, which is why he had been eating Gu Sheng Nan's cooking at the hotel. Feeling deceived or used, thinking she was special while he had another chef all along, Gu Sheng Nan leaves in anger.

Lu Jin's company informs him that the hotel will not meet their standards and will be repurposed for a different business, meaning all workers must be fired. When Gu Sheng Nan confronts him, Lu Jin admits there is no choice but to terminate the staff, even reflecting on a past decision to fire a worker who had served the company for twenty years.

While in London, Lu Jin asks his personal chef to join him for dinner, but she refuses, explaining she has always cooked for just one person. Later, she texts him that she can no longer be his chef because she senses he wants more than just food, he wants someone to share life with. This prompts Lu Jin to return to Shanghai to find Gu Sheng Nan.

After reconciling on the balcony where they watch the sunset together, Lu Jin promises to cook for Gu Sheng Nan during the credits. In the final scene, he suggests they watch the sunrise together, a symbolic gesture indicating they want to spend their lives together, starting each new day as a couple.